Polarization Pros And Cons

After arguably the most divisive and polarizing election in the history of the United States, many Americans are asking how exactly did we get here? Political scholars and experts overrun cable news shows and newspaper editorials with troubling claims declaring that America may be a more polarized nation today than at any other time in its long history. There is no doubt that the American electorate is divided nearly along party lines on almost all current policy issues. Republicans and Democrats seem to be shifting farther and farther toward opposite ends of the ideological spectrum. This paper aims to answer the question of what the primary cause for this current state of polarization is. I will argue that economic issues, primarily

However, Medicaid, health care for the poor, and Medicare, health care for the elderly, were the first major, and expensive, social assistance programs. "The government was providing more support to more people than was the case for much of American History," intensifying the economic debate between Republicans and Democrats. After these first programs were enacted, Republicans stated to promote personal responsibility, a message championed by President Ronald Reagan, as a way to confront the costs and heavy tax burden on American citizens. Conservatives began to make some legislative progress against these social preforms in 1994, with Republican Newt Gingrich's "Contract with American" campaign, entrenched with messages of personal and fiscal responsibility, gave Republicans a majority in the House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years. "No Republican in Congress has voted for a tax increase since 1993," as they became concerned that these programs were costing the hard-working and successful American too

Pew Research Center has assembled the results of the "percent who say poor people have hard lives because government benefits don't go far enough." This question targets the basis for the partisan difference on all economic issues. 76% of Democrats agreement with this statement, while only 25% of Republicans believe government benefit's do not go far enough. The astounding 51% difference between the parties displays the extreme polarization between the Republicans and Democrats on this crucial economic question. Additionally, it is important to note that the difference between the parties has more than doubled since 1994; suggesting that while polarization on economic issues has existed since rise of Democratic social programs in the 1960s, this polarization has been seriously heightened by the diverging economic policies of the present-day